In the technology of building electronic equipment used for telecommunications and, in particular, for data processing, widespread use is made of electrical assemblies of varying degrees of complexity such as electrical recorders or electronic circuits operating by pulses for example, which are particularly sensitive to the disturbing effects of electromagnetic radiation generated by other electrical circuits outside these assemblies. This is why these electrical assemblies, in order to be protected against this parasitic radiation, are generally enclosed in a metal chassis which both mechanically supports and electrically shields the electrical assembly.
The electrical assemblies enclosed in these chassis consume electrical current and are generally supplied by electrical generators designed to deliver electrical currents whose voltage, intensity, and/or frequency characteristics must meet specific conditions in order to allow these assemblies to operate correctly. Some of these electrical generators, such as those delivering DC voltages of several tens of volts for example, can be accommodated inside the same chassis as that containing the consumer assembly supplied by these generators. Other generators on the other hand, such as those known as "undulators" for example, cannot be accommodated inside the chassis in which the consumer assembly they supply is located since these generators often cause relatively substantial high-frequency electromagnetic radiation requiring strong shielding which makes them particularly bulky. Moreover, these generators, because of the relatively high electrical voltages--on the order of a few hundreds of volts--prevailing inside them, require careful electrical insulation, and locating them in the chassis containing the assembly to be supplied would probably be hazardous for persons servicing this equipment if, for any reason, these generators had defective insulation. Since each of these generators is located in a different chassis from the chassis containing the consumer assembly to be supplied, it is necessary, to ensure the electrical connection between a generator and this assembly, to use a shielded multiconductor cable whose conducting wires establish the essential links between the electrical circuits of the generator and those of the consumer assembly, whose shielding sheath is connected to the two chassis containing this generator and this consumer assembly.
To allow this shielded multiconductor cable to be easily disconnected from one or the other of these two chassis, in order, in particular, to replace a faulty generator or consumer assembly by another generator or another consumer assembly, in the prior art, shielded connectors of the type described and shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,904,265 have been used, this connector being composed of two connector parts, the first of which, integral with a chassis, has an insulating body provided with sockets into which are inserted contact elements of a first type (female for example), these contact elements being connected to the circuits of a generator assembly or the consumer assembly contained in this chassis, and the second of which [connector part], attached to one end of the multiconductor cable, has an insulating body provided with sockets into which are inserted contact elements of a second type (male for example) designed to be placed in contact with the contact elements of the first type when these two connector parts are coupled together, these contact elements of the second type being connected to the conducting wires of the multiconductor cable. The insulating body of the first connector part is provided with a first shielding element made of a conducting material, the first element being electrically connected to the metal chassis. Likewise, the insulating body of the second connector part is provided with a second shielding element which, also made of a conducting material, is electrically connected to the shielding sheath of the cable.
These two shielding elements are shaped so that they match each other when the two connector parts are coupled, ensuring continuous shielding between the multiconductor cable and the metal chassis.
In an electrical connector of this type, it is necessary for the various component parts of the connector to be machined and matched with very great precision so that, when the two connector parts are coupled, the contact elements, which are relatively small, can be placed in contact with each other under a specific mechanical pressure, and so that the shielding elements can fit into each other with as little play as possible. As a result, not only is the manufacturing of such a connector, which requires perfect positioning of the various component parts with respect to each other, particularly time-consuming and expensive, but the repeated connection and disconnection operations of the two connector parts, which require relatively large mechanical forces because the two shielding elements are fitted together, eventually cause misalignment of the contact elements, which of course is likely to cause deterioration of these contact elements, leading to rapid failure of the connector.